Some of Australasia’s greatest harness racing talent will step out at Tabcorp Park Melton on Saturday night providing a pre-Breeders Crown feast.
Outstanding New Zealand three-year-olds Our Waikiki Beach and Franco Cristiano, and Group 1 horses Hectorjayjay, Messini, Tee Cee Bee Macray, Flaming Flutter and Menin Gate are among the stars splashed across the card’s central races.
And then there’s Group 3 races the Empire Stallions Vicbred Championship final, featuring Stay And Play, and the Aldebaran Park Vulcan Trotters Free For All, featuring Maori Time.
For most runners the racing presents a final tune-up ahead of Breeders Crown commitments, with all roads leading to the August 26 and 28 finals at Tabcorp Park.
Among that number is Hectorjayjay, David Aiken’s five-year-old Dream Away gelding who has taken all before him in his short time at Avenel. Only a barnstorming run from Ohoka Punter in the Group 1 Blacks A Fake robbed him of a fifth board on his picket fence.
Aiken said Hectorjayjay’s venture north to Menangle and then Albion Park hadn’t taxed him, which boded well for his Perth Inter Dominion campaign in December.
“He’s good, he worked well this morning and has travelled well,” Aiken said. “He had a little stopover in Sydney for six days and has been really good. That’s the second trip he has had away now, having had a short trip to Mildura which (also) went well."
Drawn barrier six in the Minuteman Free For All, Hectorjayjay will step out Saturday night as favourite, but will clash with a quality field and with one eye on an August 26 feature race.
“This is very much a lead up run for the Breeders Crown Graduate race in two weeks’ time,” Aiken said. “We were only going to give him one run, but with the Melton Plate now just a week after (Breeders Crown) we might put him in that, then freshen him up before all things head towards Perth.
“There are some challenges (Saturday night). Chilli Palmer has been very good, Messini is a good horse on the way back up, Young Modern is a nice horse when 100 per cent and Major Crocker was good last week. They are nice horses and with where we are drawn it will be a challenge, but a strength of his racing is that he can win from behind and is probably the best horse in the race. The outside draw just evens it up a bit.”
Young Modern is unlikely to cause Hectorjayjay too many headaches, according to his trainer Emma Stewart. Having his first run in the stable of this year’s leading state and metropolitan trainer, Young Modern will step out for the first time in three months and the Modern Art five-year-old has given his new trainer her fair share of headaches.
“He steps into the deep end and will be swimming with the sharks, but at this grade there are no easy races,” Stewart said. “We are not 100 per cent happy with him, he is not our favourite horse at the moment. He will need a couple of runs and be better for them.”
The camp has higher expectations for Stay And Play, who will contest the final of the Empire Stallions Vicbred Championship, having won her heat by 7.1m.
“I think she is the class runner of this race,” Stewart said. “She has trained good and drawn well, so I think she will run a really good race.” Fellow heat winner Snip Of Grand is among her rivals in the $30,575 feature.
Much interest will also surround the tab.com.au pace with New Zealanders Our Waikiki Beach, for Mark Purdon, and Franco Cristiano, for Robert Dunn, to start from the back row, with Victorian Vicbred champ Menin Gate to take up the running from gate three.
For John Dunn, driver of Franco Cristiano, the cards hadn’t fallen as he may have hoped for the Breeders Crown tune-up.
His three-year-old Bettors Delight gelding trialled at Melton on Tuesday and ran second to Highview Ruler.
“He drew five out of six, so I just took him back to last and they dawdled round up front, but he had a good last half and last 400 so I was happy with him,” Dunn told RSN’s trials review. “I came over a couple of weeks early to let the horse settle in and try and find a nice race. Unfortunately on paper this week’s not that good of a race for him, but we will see how we go.
“He’s still not a foolproof horse. It’s quite good coming a wee bit earlier to let him have a couple of looks at the track anyway and the style of racing over here. Whatever he does this week he hopefully should improve on.”
LISTEN TO JOHN DUNN'S FULL INTERVIEW ON RSN 927
A winner of eight of his 11 starts the half-brother to Ladyship Mile placegetter Cruiser Franco will start from gate 10, outside superstar Our Waikiki Beach who he will battle for Breeders Crown glory on August 28.
“(Franco Cristiano) showed a fair bit as an early three-year-old and showed he could compete against Lazarus and horses like that, but unfortunately got a hairline fracture of his pastern so we put him aside, which could have been a blessing in disguise the way those three-year-olds were flying back home and over here earlier in the season,” Dunn said. “We brought him up late in the piece and that’s why I decided to have a crack at Breeders Crown.”
The night will also be notable for the Decron Pace, with Empire Stallions Vicbred Super Series star swooper Tee Cee Bee Macray to step out for the first time since his brave second in the four-year-old age classic.
Starting from 13 in the preferential barrier draw, he will come up against the likes of in-form runners Johnny Fox (Kerryn Manning) and Major Star (Andy Gath).
Michael Howard (HRV Media/Communications Co-Ordinator)